Hindus mark the beginning of spring with Holi festival

The main festival is on Friday this year but celebrations begin a week early in the town of Vrindavan, India - the birthplace of god Krishna.

Holi, the popular Hindu spring festival of colours, is observed in India at the end of the winter season on the last full moon of the lunar month. March 1, 2018
AFP

Holi, the popular Hindu spring festival of colours, is observed in India at the end of the winter season on the last full moon of the lunar month. March 1, 2018

Winter ends, spring arrives and the colours come out.

Across India and Nepal, millions of Hindus are celebrating Holi, the joyous festival of colour, smearing one another with coloured powder and spraying each other with water guns.

The two-day festival of Holi is mainly celebrated on Friday this year, but has countless variants and traditions, and some festivals began days ago. 

By Thursday afternoon, it was easy to find office workers in central New Delhi with their faces smeared red and yellow.

While its roots are religious, tied in many ways to the god Krishna, Holi is also seen as a celebration of good versus evil, and of a good harvest.

Rebecca Bundhun reports on how the celebration is proving lucrative for some. 

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